Laramie Movie Scope:Anatomy of a Murder

Complex murder case

by Patrick Ivers, Film Critic

Anatomy of a Murder – (1959, b/w) Country lawyer Paul Biegler
(Jimmy Stewart), who enjoys and plays jazz on the piano, with assistance from
his alcoholic associate Parnell Emmett McCarthy (Arthur O’Connell) and
efficient secretary Maida Rutledge (Eve Arden) accepts the case of Army Lt
Frederick Manion (Ben Gazzara) who shot to death Barney Quill, owner of the
Thunder Bay Bar, because his very attractive wife Laura Manion (Lee Remick)
claimed Barney raped her. The case is full of imponderables and conflicted
characters: Lt Manion has a history of jealousy and bad temper; Laura acts
and dresses like a tart, but she passed a polygraph test (not admissible as
evidence in court); Barney’s bartender Alphonse Paquette puts up a defensive
version of events favoring his former boss; and Mary Pilant (Kathryn Grant),
the bar’s manager and suspected mistress of Mr Quill, is hiding a secret.

Relying on a Michigan-state precedent from the 1880s and a military
psychiatrist’s diagnosis of “dissociative reaction” (aka irresistible impulse),
Biegler defends Lt Manion as having been temporarily insane. The local
prosecutor Mitchell Lodwick (Brooks West) gets considerable help during the
trial from the formidable Assistant State Attorney General Claude Dancer
(George C. Scott) and their own expert in psychology. The trial, presided
over by the dispassionate Judge Weaver (Joseph N. Welch – in real life a judge
who had become known for his supervision of the McCarthy hearings) who often
has to warn Biegler to curb his passionate outbursts and wisecracks, weaves a
complex story, both revealing (the frequent mention of “panties” during the
examinations of witnesses was daring at the time) and concealing the truth.
Duke Ellington provided the soundtrack and a brief appearance as Pie Eye
sharing a piano duet with Stewart.

Patrick Ivers can be reached via e-mail at .

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